When I was but a young lad, my grandfather had thousands of feet of steel cable, old pulleys and 10 acres of giant pecan trees. My brothers and I stretched that wire with a come-along and had an elaborate network of trusses much like Fred Garvin, male prostitute. Good times. Good times.

Worked for a liability insurer a couple of years ago, and zip-liners were only one of two businesses that were an automatic no-go, and that was pretty much industry standard. They're very tough to get policies for.

Brakefornobody:Worked for a liability insurer a couple of years ago, and zip-liners were only one of two businesses that were an automatic no-go, and that was pretty much industry standard. They're very tough to get policies for.

My younger sister had her prom last year and mom and dad were on the post-prom committee. Farkstick parents wanted a mechanical bull and a zipline because both of those are what the kids wanted. This was a Catholic school, and dad had the sense to call the Bishop's office instead of pounding his head against the wall.

For some reason, high school kids and unsupervised physical activities in an environment where the school and diocese is directly liable is a bad thing.

I put a zip line in the back yard. I didn't use one of those crappy kits. I purchased real mountaineering gear. Also, the proper way to anchor to a tree involves drilling through the tree, which is a pretty good way to inspect the strength of the tree. Mine goes between two very strong oaks, for about 250 feet. I didn't think about the insurance angle though. The kids are older now, so I'll probably remove it.It is fun for adults, at night, after cocktails - hurtling toward a tree in the pitch black..

CSB We were playing with Jarts as kids. Launching them one day with a bicycle innertube and a piece of aluminum awning that we had fabricated into a makeshift ballista, (Think black arrow launching at Hobbitses dragons) in order to see how high we could make them go. Well, of course 'what goes up, must come down' and sure enough it came down right into the head of one of my older playmates. Fortunately the jart did not enter his cranium or even penetrate his skull. It had in fact only broken the scalp and lodged above his ear. Those Jarts did not have a particularly sharp point, but this one's mark was true. The metal tip stretched the skin away from the skull and bled profusely when his dad pulled it out. I will never forget that day, because one kid cried and screamed over and over that we'd 'killed him' and his little brother (that had two toes grown together) peed his pants.

Oh, you have to love websites that load perfectly fine, then redirect you away from the page you actually wanted to read for -GASP- daring to have javascript disabled. Enterprise news just lost a potential reader for a greedy, poorly designed script.

CSB We were playing with Jarts as kids. Launching them one day with a bicycle innertube and a piece of aluminum awning that we had fabricated into a makeshift ballista, (Think black arrow launching at Hobbitses dragons) in order to see how high we could make them go. Well, of course 'what goes up, must come down' and sure enough it came down right into the head of one of my older playmates. Fortunately the jart did not enter his cranium or even penetrate his skull. It had in fact only broken the scalp and lodged above his ear. Those Jarts did not have a particularly sharp point, but this one's mark was true. The metal tip stretched the skin away from the skull and bled profusely when his dad pulled it out. I will never forget that day, because one kid cried and screamed over and over that we'd 'killed him' and his little brother (that had two toes grown together) peed his pants.

BSB (boring story bro) - here in New Zealand it's common to have these things on playgrounds. There are two within a ten minute drive that are over 100 feet long and start from a platform six or seven feet high. These are fully open to the public 24/7 and oddly nobody has died on them.

Their existence has a lot to do with the fact that you can't sue someone for damages here. If you get hurt, the government pays to stitch you back up again, even if you need to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. I just sliced my finger open with a chisel last week and the six stitches and two follow up appointments cost me a total of SEVEN dollars, including a course of antibiotics and a tetanus booster. I hate to think what that would have cost me when I lived in the States, even WITH health insurance.

Snarcoleptic_Hoosier:Brakefornobody: Worked for a liability insurer a couple of years ago, and zip-liners were only one of two businesses that were an automatic no-go, and that was pretty much industry standard. They're very tough to get policies for.

My younger sister had her prom last year and mom and dad were on the post-prom committee. Farkstick parents wanted a mechanical bull and a zipline because both of those are what the kids wanted. This was a Catholic school, and dad had the sense to call the Bishop's office instead of pounding his head against the wall.

For some reason, high school kids and unsupervised physical activities in an environment where the school and diocese is directly liable is a bad thing.

Probably for the best. It lets them get to the REAL post-prom unsupervised physical activities more quickly.

/That's only partially sarcasm. While I do think sex is an appropriate post-prom activity, the zipline and mechanical bull sound like they would have been fun pre-sex activities. Your dad is the farkstick stick in the mud.

The Musky Scent Of Recent Male Completion:here in New Zealand it's common to have these things on playgrounds. There are two within a ten minute drive that are over 100 feet long and start from a platform six or seven feet high. These are fully open to the public 24/7 and oddly nobody has died on them.

Their existence has a lot to do with the fact that you can't sue someone for damages here. If you get hurt, the government pays to stitch you back up again, even if you need to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. I just sliced my finger open with a chisel last week and the six stitches and two follow up appointments cost me a total of SEVEN dollars, including a course of antibiotics and a tetanus booster. I hate to think what that would have cost me when I lived in the States, even WITH health insurance.

Well, just to give you an idea: With no insurance, you'd easily be looking at $1000-$2000 depending on whether you went to the emergency room (most expensive), an immediate case center (less), or your family doctor (least expensive and unlikely anyway). The bill negotiated by insurance would probably be 400-800 bucks. How much you'd have to pay out of pocket depends on your insurance plan, especially whether you've already met your deductible for the year. So, you might pay anywhere from 10% to 100% of that bill (on top of your monthly insurance premiums). My youngest kid cut her forehead enough to need glue, but not stitches. We paid $90 out of pocket. Here's a longer read if you are interested:

For those of you getting hit with the No Java redirect, here is a 'fix'When the page starts loading, start pressing escape repeatedly. It may take a few tries, but if you time it right the page will load fine (surprised?) and your escapes will halt the redirect.

I am planning to install a zipline over our backyard sled run. I think it be fun to watch the kids race each other- one in the air and one on the ground. I don't plan to use trees to anchor the zipline though.

DarkVader:That's only partially sarcasm. While I do think sex is an appropriate post-prom activity, the zipline and mechanical bull sound like they would have been fun pre-sex activities. Your dad is the farkstick stick in the mud.

I'm not contesting my father being a stick in the mud, but from a pure insurance standpoint, what happens if something stupid happens? Parents say the bull doesn't go higher than 3 out of 10, but a 17 year old whines and begs to get it up to 8 because he swears he can handle it. Or convinces the zipline guy to let him take a running start? Or not all the parents are on the same page and set different standards for "acceptable"? It's a small town with a lot of upper-middle class families, petulancy and money threats are going to happen.